3 Steps to Help Build the Best Social Media Marketing Strategy

Social media marketing can be a difficult concept for new business owners to grasp, especially if they have been brought up with a more traditional sales background. Though there are some definite similarities between traditional marketing and social marketing, it is the differences that can make the biggest impact. With that in mind, here are 3 simple steps that will help you to build a basic, but effective social media strategy.

1. Extend Your Reach as Wide as Possible

Right away, this probably puts up a red flag for the traditional marketing experts, and rightfully so. One of the first things marketers learn about is the need for specificity in advertising. This means figuring out exactly who your target audience is and tailoring your brand towards that audience. Keep those branding efforts up, but instead of just focusing on one or two social media channels, take the shotgun approach. Get your brand up on as many outlets as possible and start working. Social media is not always an exact science, and this will help refine your strategy later on.

2. Look to Your Competitors

The first thing any social media experts will do when they are building a brand strategy is to examine the competition. This means going to the social pages of at least three or more of your competitors and look at what they are posting. Check out which outlets they seem to focus most of their attention on and where they post which updates. For example, a company might use Facebook to post memes and articles, while that same company uses Twitter to participate in social conversations and Instagram to post pictures of their products. If it’s working for them, it will probably work for you as well.

3. Analyze Engagement Trends

The key to good social media marketing is user engagement. This is the final step in the planning phase for one important reason: you learn from your mistakes. Go back through all of the platforms your company is on and analyze which ones are working. You may find that there is an untapped social media outlet that your competition is letting slip through the cracks. By really analyzing where the traffic is originating, you can more easily capture this traffic.

Ultimately, the easiest way for most businesses to ensure they have a proper strategy in place is to hire social media experts. These individuals have worked in the industry long enough to understand trends and will be able to more quickly put a strategy in place that will maximize your progress.